Toronto transit-users will likely pay more to ride the Red Rocket next year.
The TTC has approved a fare hike in principle, so that it can increase revenues and help ease a $28-million budget shortfall. The fare hike means the price of a TTC token will jump by a nickel, up to $2.65, as of January 2013. The proposed increase must be approved by city council.
The price of weekly passes will increase $1 to $38.50, and the cost of a Metropass will go up $2.50 to $128.50.
Cash fares will not be affected by the price hike.
The TTC has estimated the fare hike will bring in $18 million a year.
Also Thursday, the TTC commissioners voted to contract out cleaning services, a move the Amalgamated Transit Union opposes.
“Is it coincidental that we’re talking about contacting out at the same time we’re talking about a fare increase, so it creates the perception that somehow there’s a correlation between having to decrease the wages of the lowest-paid workers at the TTC?” asked ATU Local 113 president Rob Kinnear, when speaking to the commissioners on Thursday.